Key Projects

IMPACT at Swansea University’s Bay Campus forms part of the College of Engineering as a semi-autonomous Research Institute, with strategic research objectives determined by a scientific steering board and advice from external industrial, governmental and academic stakeholders. It will provide future-proof highly specialised laboratories for fundamental research and office space providing a dynamic environment for collaboration of industry and academia, with the aim to attract significant research funding.

This state of the art, semi-autonomous Research Institute will operate in the “Grand Challenge” priority area of Advanced Engineering and Materials to add to world-leading capacities and capabilities within the College of Engineering.

IMPACT will enable a step change in research and innovation in the College’s already outstanding Materials, Processing and Numerical Technologies research groups.

The IMPACT research programme will be delivered through an internationally competitive team of 65+ in-house academic researchers and 155+ additional researchers working in high-quality research facilities. The distinct ethos of IMPACT will ensure that its research brings together the world-leading expertise from across the College of Engineering, to create multi-disciplinary teams that are able to attract world-leading talent or experts, and significant additional funding to carry out fundamental frontiers research.

It is supplemented by more novel areas such as photovoltaic research with co-location of Wales’ Solar Photovoltaic Academic Research Consortium (SPARC II).

IMPACT has been part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government and Swansea University.

The Computational Foundry based at Swansea University’s Bay Campus will transform Swansea, West Wales and the Valleys and the nation as a global destination for computational scientists. The Foundry will establish an internationally renowned, digital ecosystem for world-class computational science research that brings together interdisciplinary research and addresses grand challenges for the economy and society under the three themes of Sustaining Life; Enhancing Life, and Securing Life. It will continue to build capacity in Swansea University’s globally recognised research strengths computational science.

The Computational Foundry will be a bespoke environment built from the ground up to house Computational Scientists within the heart of the Bay Campus. The Foundry is designed to allow increased collaboration between industry/academia engagement with inspirational space, events and seminar rooms, meeting areas to enable these conversations to flourish.

The Research Crucible based within the Foundry will host space for over 150 researchers and includes Research and Development Laboratories, Postgraduate and Researcher areas, and networking space. It will encompass bespoke research laboratories that support the industrial proof-of-concept and prototyping work, stimulating commercial opportunities, entrepreneurship and job creation all leading to meaningful industrial engagement with business of all sizes and across all sectors.

The Computational Foundry is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. The Computational Foundry is part of Swansea University’s College of Science.

Swansea University is strengthening its decade-long partnership with Navitas ‘The International College Wales Swansea (ICWS)’, having signed an agreement for a joint venture that brings with it an external investment of some £45m in the University’s estate. This will see the creation of two new buildings at the Bay Campus: an academic building and a 411-bed student residence, as well as a change in name. The partnership will be known as ‘The College, Swansea University’.

Engineering Central

Engineering Central forms part of the College of Engineering and focuses on advanced engineering and manufacturing. It is home to the Swansea Bay Innovation Hub which along with the Engineering Manufacturing Centre (EMC), has been partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.

Engineering Central provides world-class facilities for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching as well as industrial research and development in a state-of-the-art building. Engineering Central represents an investment of around £36 million which will enable the University to grow its activities in advanced engineering and manufacturing.

Engineering Central also supports the:

Undergraduate and postgraduate teaching

Health and Biosciences in developing engineering solutions to medical challenges including nanotechnology and design for manufacture to take prototype devices to production run.

Low Carbon Economy in areas such as material development for weight reduction and aerodynamic performance.

Digital Economy Cluster in the development of hardware and wireless technologies.

The interaction between the subject areas is very complex and there are many areas of integration and support from one discipline to another.

This project is partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.

Engineering East - home to the Manufacturing Facility

Engineering East at Swansea University’s Bay Campus forms part of the College of Engineering. It provides undergraduate and postgraduate teaching facilities, work areas and research space for staff and research students involved in Civil Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Materials and Mechanical Engineering. The building also incorporates the main workshop facilities for the whole of the College of Engineering.

Engineering East is home to the Manufacturing Facility providing a research and development resource for manufacturing applications in the advanced manufacturing sector. It houses a state-of-the-art Scanning Electron Microscope facility and is home to the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating and the SPECIFIC project.

Engineering East includes research groups studying polymers and composites, materials, civil engineering, electronics and sport and exercise science. It has eight ‘Research Hubs’ providing accommodation for up to 60 academic staff and up to 275 researchers.

The building has been designed to provide state-of-the-art facilities for students and research, particularly in manufacturing. It provides research space which is flexible and large-scale allowing full-size experimentation and prototype development to take place.

Engineering East is home to the Engineering Manufacturing Centre (EMC) which along with the Swansea Bay Innovation Hub, has been partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government.

The state-of-the-art School of Management building is home for students and staff from Accounting, Business Management and Economics. Applied research, innovation and employment opportunities is offered by this exceptional working environment.

Occupying a prime seafront location, the School of Management boasts purpose-built lecture and teaching spaces for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Three floors are dedicated to student experience and high-tech teaching and research spaces, that together with collaborative working and practice areas ensures that the School is able to deliver on its commitment to offer an engaging and innovative student experience.

The School has a unique environment which fosters engagement, collaboration and innovation. Students will benefit from work placements, skills development, and an atmosphere of enterprise and entrepreneurship.

At the heart of the Bay Campus, the Bay Library is where you will able to find social learning, research and academic spaces all supporting the work of our undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff. The campus will provide access to our full range of online journals, e-books, datasets and also to our 850,000 print items either locally, for relevant subject areas, or through delivery between our campuses.

The Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI) concentrates the College of Engineering’s strength in the energy sector.

The Institute is supported by industry sponsors. It focuses on the safety issues surrounding the development and expansion of existing energy processes, as well as the safe deployment and integration of new 'green' energy technologies.

The design and construction of a new 3,800sqm building enables the University to develop the quality and scale of its research efforts in the areas of energy and safety.

The Institute has an international focus and is a constituent member of the Global Energy Safety Institute (founded in Houston, Texas in 2011), a sister Institute of the Energy and Environmental Systems Institute at Rice University, Houston and an associate of the National Corrosion Research Centre at Texas A&M (supported by BP in North America).

This builds on the existing long-term strengths within the College of Engineering in the area of petroleum and chemical processing, particularly in terms of computational science (rock fracture modelling and fracking') and corrosion.

It is supplemented by more recent research success in marine energy, nuclear, tidal, advanced water treatment ('fracking' post-treatment and separation), materials, crisis management and more novel areas such as photovoltaic (PV) and nanotechnology.

The iconic Great Hall is the legacy building provided by BP to Swansea University. The Hall is located at the centre of the Bay Campus and provides a beautiful space for the University to host music concerts, conferences, and hold graduation and other large University events. It is available for staff, students and the community to enjoy.

First floor contains a concert, exhibition and conference facilities with the capacity to host events for up to 700 people.

The Institute of Structural Materials (ISM) houses a mix of academic research and commercial activities.

Major ISM research sponsors include Rolls-Royce, Airbus, TWI and Timet, with funds geared by a number of EPSRC, TSB and EU initiatives.

One of the prominent research groups operating within the ISM is the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC) in Materials, supporting 12 post-doctoral research staff and approximately 40 postgraduate students.

The substantial mechanical test laboratories within the ISM building will be managed by Swansea Materials Research & Testing Ltd (SMaRT).

SMaRT is an exemplar of the academia-industry knowledge transfer model at the heart of the Bay development.

The Active Classroom is SPECIFIC's latest full-scale building demonstration project, located at Swansea University's £450 million Bay Campus.

The Active Classroom contains a laboratory and classroom and will be used for teaching students. It will also be monitored closely, enabling researchers to test and validate building performance in an education facility and to see how users interact with technology.

Demonstration at a building scale is vital in evaluating and proving techniques and technologies, before they will be adopted by the construction sector, regulators and consumers. SPECIFIC's demonstration programme has been designed to test and prove the buildings as power stations concept in a range of uses.